Gaudavaho

Author(s): Vakpatiraj, Narhari Govind Suru, P L Vaidya, A N Upadhye, H C Bhayani
Publisher: Prakrit Text Society Ahmedabad

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title of Kavirāja, when he proved his merit and gained the King's approval in such a contest. He also speaks of a session of learned men assembled at his place, where he was requested to narrate to them the heroic exploits of their beloved monarch Yašovarman.
Such is the picture of the Society under normal conditions. But when subjected to an attack from a foreign power, which was not an infrequent occurrence, there must have been chaos and confusion, causing dislocation of the normal state of affairs. The enemy's soldiers, if their master triumphed, must be indulging in plunder, dishonour of women, their capture as spoils of war and other such indignities that a victor was likely to inflict on the vanquished. Even migration of a part of the population to other neighbouring countries must have been the case, when Yašovarman was attacked by the king Lalitāditya of Kashmir.
VIII. The Language of the Gaüdavaho :
It is a fact now beyond doubt that the Prakrits have not originated from Sanskrit, as was supposed by grammarians like Hemacandra, but that they have come down from a dialect or dialects that were contemporaneous with the Vedic language. “Ass against Sanskrit, which means a refined or polished' language the Prakrits were, as the name itself indicates, ' natural' or common 'dialects used by the masses among different tribes and in different regions. It is indeed not improbable that the language actually spoken in workaday life by the classes, who used Sanskrit for literary purposes, was more akin to the Prakrits than to Sanskrit. Besides it is certain that Sanskrit and the Prakrit had been influencing 55. R. N. Dandekar, Journal of the University of Poona,
No. 23. P. 32.